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It will mean Deben and Orwell High schools will close and instead the town will have just one new high school for 11 to 19s.

The £30 million-plus school project will open in 2013, and be built on Orwell’s site in Maidstone Road, Walton, and will also mean Deben’s buildings in Garrison Lane and playing fields in Langley Avenue being sold for housing.

Suffolk County Council’s cabinet is being recommended to accept the “one site, single school” option at its meeting on January 13 - even though more parents who commented during the consultation wanted to keep Orwell and Deben.

Of those who responded, 287 said they wanted to keep the current set-up, and 277 voted for change.

The council though says the split was “reasonably equal” but the advantages of a single school are overwhelming. 

Building Schools for the Future programme manager Phil Houghton said the biggest advantage of one school would be to pool resources to offer the widest possible education. 

Both Deben and Orwell heads and governors are in favour of one school.

Some parents voiced concern about the new school being too large and could affect students’ learning.

Mr Houghton said: “The joint solution proposed by the school in terms of the educational aspects involves the creation of a model of ’schools within a school’ - whereby there would be, say, four schools within the umbrella, each running its own timetable and thus instead of having one school of approximately 1800, there would instead be four schools each of 450.

“This means that pupils benefit from the personalised nature of being within a smaller ’school’ and at the same time benefit from the fact that a large overall establishment could deliver the widest possible curriculum and opportunities for all pupils.”

If cabinet agrees the new school, the next stage will be to see if an educational trust or faith organisation wants to run it.

(source: Evening Star)

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The event, organised by young people, and performed to an invited audience, is the first in a series of youth celebration events to be held in the county, following an award of £15,000 from the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF).

Director for Children and Young People, Rosalind Turner presented awards to the young people for their performances and said, “This has been a wonderful occasion to celebrate the talents and hard work of young people in Suffolk. I would also like to acknowledge the dedication and efforts of the youth workers in supporting these young people’s work towards this event.”

The evening featured performances from Tru Soldiers street dance group and a story called ‘Monster Mayhem’ by 11-year-old Jake Goddard, both from Felixstowe’s Level Two Youth Project, as well as the Lateral Artiste youth drama group from Lowestoft and music from the Believe project (CSV Media) in Ipswich. Other youth clubs and projects taking part include: Moving On Project (Lowestoft), Key and Link Project, 4YP Ipswich, The Sudbury Web, The Sudbury Celebration, At Home by Emily Pyne, Brandon Flower Pots, Garp Toons and other art contributions.

Nicki Chatt, aged 13, of Tru Soldiers street dance group, Level 2 Youth Club, said, “We wanted to bring the hip hop and the street dance together in the performance. It’s been good tonight, it was interesting to see all the really good things that other young people have done.”

Jake Goddard, also from Level 2 Youth Club, said, “I got my ideas from Level 2 and shops in Felixstowe and used different voices for the characters to bring the story to life.” 

Make an Exhibition of Yourself is the first of 3 celebration events to be held in Suffolk, as a result of the County Council receiving an award of £15,000 from the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF). Suffolk County Council is one of 10 local authority pilot projects to be funded across the country to develop and deliver initiatives to test out a range of youth-led celebration events, working with local services and communities to foster more positive perceptions of young people. Each of the successful pilots will need to ensure that young people are at the centre of the decision making, planning, development and delivery of the celebration events. The Suffolk pilot aims to provide a platform to enable up to 1,000 young people to celebrate their achievements - both formal and informal, participation and involvement in a range of positive activities. Each event will be organised and managed by young people, supported by a number of partners including: Suffolk Youth & Connexions Service, Suffolk County Council, Ipswich Borough Council, Young Suffolk Vinvolved team, voluntary youth sector, Extended Services and Youth Offending Service. 

Suffolk Coastal Teen Voices (SCTV) and Connexions Suffolk recently organised a Youth Art competition and showcase for the district, held at Walton Community Hall in Felixstowe.